Jewish Autonomous Oblast

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO; Russian: Евре́йская автоно́мная о́бласть, Yevreyskaya avtonomnaya oblast; Yiddish: ייִדישע אװטאָנאָמע געגנט, yidishe avtonome gegnt)  is a federal subject of Russia. It is located in the Russian Far East, near Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast in Russia and Heilongjiang province in China. The main city is Birobidzhan.

In the late 1940s, the Jewish population here was around 46,000–50,000, about 25% of the population.  In 2010 there were only 1,628 Jews in the JAO (less than 1% of the population).

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